Traffic woes on Pensacola Beach are not new. Stacks of expensive studies gathering dust and filled with data analyzing the causes of the problems and ideas to solve them are testaments to that.

Andrew Vernier lives a short, easy 20-minute drive from his job at Flounders Ale House on Pensacola Beach on most weekdays.

On weekends, he says it takes him a stress-filled hour-and-half to nudge his way to work in bumper-to-bumper traffic, which stacks up from the Bob Sikes Bridge, through the city of Gulf Breeze, across the 3-mile Pensacola Bay Bridge and into Pensacola. Sometimes, it snakes all the way onto Interstate 110.

"The traffic bottlenecks and everyone is cutting in, left and right, and making it worse," he said. "It's pretty ridiculous. I'm surprised I get here without getting into a wreck."

Long traffic snarls to Pensacola Beach on postcard spring and summer days are not new. Stacks of expensive studies gathering dust on Santa Rosa Island Authority shelves filled with data analyzing the causes of the problems and ideas to solve them are testaments to the chronic problem.

For some reason or reasons, this year the beach traffic seems far worse. Opinions vary as to the exact culprit, although most agree an increase of beach visitors are exacerbating age-old and unresolved parking and traffic circulation problems.

With that said, many people are also pointing to several new pedestrian crosswalks with flashing lights to stop the flow of traffic on Via de Luna, frequently, to allow people safe passage across the steady stream of traffic.

"It's a nonstop stream of people crossing Via de Luna and cars just sit there," said Gulf Breeze Police Chief Robert Randle, who is dealing with the headaches the traffic gridlock creates in Gulf Breeze.

The problem has gotten so serious this year for his city — beach-bound vehicles blockading the city from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. most weekends — Randle had to address it during a meeting of all city department managers Tuesday. He's also talked to Island Authority Executive Director W.A. "Buck" Lee and the sheriff deputy in charge of the beach about what's causing the problem and how to fix it.

Escambia Commissioner Grover Robinson, whose district includes Pensacola Beach, said he hears the complaints loud and clear and is working with the county's engineers on ideas to resolve the traffic woes, short-term and long-term.

For long-term fixes, he's asking his board to allocate $2 million to improve timing of the only traffic signal on the beach and redesign traffic circulation for Casino Beach parking lot, and possibly installing directional signs to prevent motorists from slowing down as they try to figure out where they're going.

This is in addition to Bob Sikes toll booth upgrades that are in the works, meant to speed up traffic through the toll plaza.

"When we fix the toll that will speed people through it faster, but then they hit the light," he said. "Our goal is to make improvements this year to the light."

Most of the other fixes won't happen until next year, he said.

"The short-term: The crosswalk won't be a flashing light on busy weekends," he said. "We are looking at potentially having a sheriff deputy out there ... stopping the pedestrians."

Robinson says the new flashing lights at the crosswalks are also causing problems for beach visitors and residents leaving the beach, slowing traffic flow to a crawl on Via de Luna and turning a 10-minute trip from Park East and Portofino Resort into a 45 minute slog.

Pedestrians have another view.

Vernier, who parks his car in the Casino Beach parking lot after fighting his way through traffic at the beach, said the flashing lights make it much easier and safer for him to cross Via de Luna. He hopes the county does not change them.

Beach residents and the Island Authority board have long pushed the county to improve crosswalks, which they viewed as public hazards. A 2011 county report on prioritizing ideas in a $300,000 master plan hammered out in 2009, listed improving crosswalks.

As a result, the county in 2013 installed and tested a completely new crosswalk with flashing warning lights embedded in the road on Pensacola Beach Boulevard that could be activated by pedestrians. This crosswalk was sorely needed to safely walk between Quietwater Beach and businesses such as Shaggy's and Innerlight Surf & Skate and Pensacola Beach Marina.

That year, the county upgraded existing crosswalks with flashing signs.

Bad reviews

Beverly McCay, general manager of Holiday Inn Express on Fort Pickens Road, says this year's traffic problem is bad for businesses in a vacation destination winning top accolades as one of the top five best beaches in the country, with the National Seashore named best beach in the state.

She wants the county and beach officials to address the problem this year.

"This problem is really starting to show up in social media," she said. "We've never seen this before."

Guests who stayed at several beach hotels have complained on TripAdviser.com about the traffic problems saying they loved their hotels, views, beach and service, but as one poster wrote: "The only drawback is the traffic. We decided to visit the Naval Museum and coming back across the bridges on a Sunday afternoon was insane. We literally inched our way back, stopping and starting. So when we were deciding where to eat supper that night we were definitely not venturing off Pensacola Beach!"

Another poster wrote: "The only minus for the weekend had nothing to do with the hotel. It was the traffic, which was bumper to bumper on the bridges to and from the island on the weekend. At times it was also gridlocked on the main road in Pensacola Beach."

These types of complaints have, for years, plagued reviews about hotels and condominiums in Destin, she said.

"People make their travel plan decisions more and more on websites, particularly TripAdvisor," McCay said. "They weigh the pros and cons. And when they read words like 'inching my way' and 'insane' and 'only drawback' it may affect people coming here."

McCay believes one solution to moving traffic is easy, inexpensive and can be done immediately, before the summer onslaught of visitors arrive.

"Better signage," she said.

She took a PNJ reporter to the corner of Fort Pickens Road and Pensacola Beach Boulevard to point out a major traffic flow issue.

Motorists traveling south on Pensacola Beach Boulevard should be directed to the east Casino Beach parking lot entrance where they can easily turn right into the parking lot, she said.

Most motorists turn right on Fort Pickens road, slow down or stop in the merge lane, in which they are not supposed to stop, so they can shoot over to the left-hand lane to turn left into the west end of the Casino Beach parking lot, she pointed out.

"They think they have to go that way," she said. "If we had some kind of signage, they would stay in left-hand lane and never have to cross traffic."

She also wants the county and Island Authority to dust off the 2009 master plan drafted primarily to address traffic and parking issues on the beach.

"We've done all of these studies and contracted people who are experts in their fields on traffic and parking, and we put them to rest. There has to be a serious attack for a long-term plan."

Locals want action

Robinson acknowledges the seasonal traffic and parking problem on the beach are frustrating, especially since a number of proposed ideas in past years, such as a parking garage, a pedestrian walkover and even a pedestrian underpass for a traffic overpass have been shot down by the public for being too expensive, not feasible and, in the case of the overpass, outlandish.

"There was no desire, politically, to do any of those," Robinson said.

The price tag on a parking garage tanked that idea.

"We were looking at $20,000 a parking space," Lee said. "If you put one at Casino Beach with 1,000 parking spaces that would cost $20 million. Who has that money?"

In the meantime, Robinson says beachgoers, especially locals whose time may be more flexible than tourists, should try to get to the beach as early as possible to beat the traffic.

Mike Robertson of Gulf Breeze is one of those "locals" who has been trying to beat the traffic for his Sunday 20-mile bike ride on the beach with friends.

He's finding even at 9 a.m. the traffic is stacking up into Gulf Breeze. He's frustrated more is not being done to address a problem that seems to get knocked to the back burner at the end of each tourism season.

"There are not too many people on Pensacola Beach but far, far too many cars," he said. "You can't build enough parking spaces on a barrier island for all the cars that want to be out there. It's beyond time to start planning to severely restrict cars. Raise the toll and use the money to create parking lots on the mainland and create buses and ferries to carry people out there for a reasonable cost."

Robertson is among a growing chorus of people who say it's time to raise the toll to $5 or $10 for big holiday weekends, like Blue Angels air show weekend, as a means to encourage people to carpool or leave their cars at home.

Even John Guice, a 95-year-old who has lived in Gulf Breeze since 1962, has noted that traffic along U.S. 98 in Gulf Breeze is unusually heavier this year, not just going to the beach, but heading east, too.

He says it's time the south end of Santa Rosa County take a cue from the north end, which has designated carpool parking lots.

"Start carpooling," he said. "That would relieve some of the congestion."

•Use Garcon Point Bridge and travel either east to Navarre Beach or west to the Bob Sikes Bridge ramp near Andrews Institute and avoid the Pensacola Bay Bridge. (It will cost you $3.75 in toll fees on Garcon Point Bridge in addition to $1 on Bob Sikes Bridge.)

•Skip Casino Beach area and head west on Fort Pickens Road to Park West or east on Via de Luna to Park East, where there is ample, free parking.

•Seek out other shoulder-road parking, which is in abundance, especially down Fort Pickens Road, where BP left behind Bahama rock parking areas it created for the oil spill cleanup. These parking areas hold several hundred vehicles.

•Avoid home-bound traffic by leaving the beach early, before 2 p.m. or wait until after 5 p.m. to leave.

Beach trolley service

WHAT: Free public Pensacola Beach-wide service funded by the SRIA.

WHEN: 4 p.m. to midnight daily, starting Friday through Sept. 7.

WHERE: Two trolleys will operate concurrently, one traveling eastbound and the other westbound. Each trolley makes 35 stops between Park West near the entrance gate to Gulf Islands National Seashore and the entrance to Portofino Island Resort near Park East.

HOW: The trolleys are outfitted with a GPS device which electronically tracks its location, updating its position every 30 seconds. Visitors can access the real-time trolley schedule four ways:

•Visit the "Trolley Tracker" at visitpensacolabeach.com/trolleytracker.

•Call 850-602-9384 and enter the trolley stop number.

•Text SRIA (space) and the trolley stop number to 41411.

•Scan the QR code posted at each trolley stop with a smartphone.

DETAILS: To see a map of all trolley stop locations or for more information, go to visitpensacolabeach.com.